Ohio’s top 2018 stories struck close to home

Several events that took place not far from Highland County — the arrest of four Wagner family members accused in the murders of eight Rhoden family members in Pike County, the resignation of Clinton County Speaker of the House Cliff Rosenberger, who represented Highland County, and Cincinnati events including a boy who was trapped and died inside a minivan and a bank shooting — are among the top Ohio stories in 2018 as selected by The Associated Press.

The top stories are listed below in chronological order:

E-SCHOOL’S DOWNFALL

One of the nation’s largest online charter schools, the Columbus-based Electronic Classroom of Tomorrow, abruptly closed on Jan. 19 amid a legal dispute over student participation totals used to determine its state funding.

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FERTILITY CLINIC FAILURE

Hundreds of women and couples were stunned and heartbroken when a storage tank malfunction on the weekend of March 3 at a fertility clinic near Cleveland destroyed over 4,000 eggs and embryos.

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OHIO STATE-TEAM DOCTOR

After an investigation was opened on April 5, scores of former athletes and other men came forward to accuse now-deceased Ohio State University team doctor Richard Strauss of sexual misconduct against students throughout his two decades there.

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TRAPPED STUDENT DEATH

The desperate last words of a 16-year-old boy who told a 911 operator “I’m going to die here” continue to hang over Cincinnati, eight months after the death of Kyle Plush on April 10 after he was trapped in the family minivan.

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STATEHOUSE UPHEAVAL

Ohio House Speaker Cliff Rosenberger announced his resignation April 10 amid what would later be revealed as an FBI investigation into potential bribes and kickbacks surrounding payday lending legislation.

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IMMIGRATION RAIDS

The debate over immigration landed squarely in Ohio in June when authorities carried out two of the largest workplace immigration raids yet under the Trump administration.

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LEBRON LEAVES AGAIN

LeBron James left Cleveland again, but this time it didn’t sting quite so much. A season after leading the Cavaliers to an NBA title in 2016 and ending Cleveland’s 52-year championship drought, James announced on July 1 he was signing with the Los Angeles Lakers.

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STORMY DANIELS ARREST

Prosecutors dropped charges against Trump-accusing porn actress Stormy Daniels on July 13 just hours after she was arrested and accused of illegally rubbing undercover police officers’ faces against her bare breasts during a performance at a strip club.

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URBAN MEYER

Ohio State issued Urban Meyer a three-game suspension Aug. 22 after a report showed he tolerated bad behavior for years from assistant coach Zach Smith, including domestic-violence accusations. Meyer returned to coaching after the suspension and led Ohio State to an 11-1 record, then announced on Dec. 5 he would step down from coaching, citing debilitating headaches caused by a cyst on his brain. He also called the suspension a contributing factor.

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CINCINNATI BANK SHOOTING

The scourge of mass shootings across the nation hit Ohio on Sept. 6, when a 29-year-old man walked into Cincinnati’s downtown Fifth Third Bank building and opened fire . He killed three people and wounded two before Cincinnati police fatally shot him.

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CLERGY ABUSE

Three of Ohio’s six Roman Catholic dioceses said in September they will release new lists of priests who have been removed from parishes because of sexual abuse and misconduct allegations.

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GOP SWEEP

Attorney General Mike DeWine led a Republican sweep of statewide executive offices in the Nov. 6 election, despite Democrats fielding one of their strongest slates in years. The GOP also maintained its 12-4 congressional majority and control of both chambers of the General Assembly.

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OHIO FAMILY KILLED

Authorities arrested a family of four Nov. 13 in the gruesome 2016 slayings of eight people from another family in rural Ohio, a crime that prosecutors suggested stemmed from a custody dispute.

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AUTO JOBS LOST

General Motors announced Nov. 26 it will cut up to 14,000 workers in North America and put five plants — including Lordstown in northeastern Ohio — up for possible closure as it abandons many of its car models and restructures to focus more on autonomous and electric vehicles.

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HORRIFIC HOUSE FIRE

An anguished mother banged on the door of the house across the street and screamed for help in a fruitless plea to save her five children as a fire late in the evening of Dec. 9 swallowed their home in Youngstown.